In the field of electrical connectors and couplings several techniques have been developed for connecting flexible, current carrying, wires to terminals in connectors and receptacles. Such wire to terminal connections have included ring terminal and screw connectors using a pressure plate, wire bearing screw terminals, compression terminals and the simple wind around screw technique. All of these earlier prior art wire to terminal connection structures had one or more serious disadvantages. Such disadvantages, included the necessity to remove wire insulation, to bend the wire in a certain manner, to install and/or tighten terminal screws and to provide wire guidance to the exterior of the connectors as heretofore devised, required a considerable amount of time to facilitate the terminal connection of conductor wires in a plug connector unit. Also, after the installation procedure, the reliability and endurance of the electrical connection between wire and terminal within the device was often less than adequate.
Another more recent form of terminal connection heretofore used in some electrical connectors utilized an insulation displacement contact (IDC) device. Here, the end of an insulated wire is forced between opposing knife edges of a blade like connector element. Examples of such IDC type elements are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,444,448 and 4,701,138. In the former patent a cap and body telescope together to force wires into the IDC contact element, and in the latter patent, an applicator block mechanically linked to a lever on the housing is used to move the wire into the receiving portion of the IDC terminal. Previous connector devices using IDC terminals have utilized a plurality of complicated interfitting components, and in some instances the resulting terminal connection was unreliable.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector unit having an improved system for terminating or connecting wires to rigid IDC type connector terminals within the unit.
Another object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector with an IDC type wire termination system that can be quickly and easily installed with one simple tool by a relatively unskilled person.
Another object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector unit with a wire termination system that is electrically reliable when assembled and can be easily disassembled for repair or change in wire size if desired.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly with an IDC type wire termination system which includes a slidable block with one opening for retaining the end of a wire, the block being movable by a simple tool such as a screwdriver which can be inserted through a second opening in the block for moving the block and thus the wire retained by it into firm contact with an IDC terminal, and further including means for locking the block in position when the electrical wire/terminal contact is made.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an electrical plug connector having a lockable wire terminating system that is particularly well adapted for ease and economy of manufacture.